Girls may be lacing up their skates at city rinks more often if a motion pushing for fairer ice distribution is approved by Ottawa council later this month.
The recommended policy proposes to reserve prime time ice for minor introductory programs and not-for-profit associations. It will also distribute ice based on registration numbers, not on history.
Currently older associations have priority, explains Laila Gibbons, allocations officer at the city department responsible for booking arenas and fields.
“We are re-balancing based on registration. That means that all associations will get a fair share of ice time,” she says.
Boys’ associations have had an advantage because they have been around longer, says Stephanie Stewart, president of the Ottawa Girls Hockey Association.
“But we’re starting to catch up. The city is doing a fair job of rejigging it and balancing it,” she says. “I understand their dilemma. To fulfill our needs, they have to take it away from others.”
According to Stewart, the OGHA only received 40 per cent of its ideal amount of ice time a few years ago, whereas several boys’ associations were getting more ice than they needed.
“It’s been evened out over the last while, we’re approaching 60 per cent now,” says Stewart. “I don’t see the difference so obviously now, but five years ago I would have said absolutely.”
However, although the proposed policy addresses ice allocation, it doesn’t change the fact that there just isn’t enough prime time ice available in Ottawa.
Charlie Pilson, who has been coaching his daughter’s hockey team for 10 years, says there isn’t enough ice to create more teams.
He says he worries that there will be major problems within the next couple years. There are currently five bantam-level teams in the OGHA and six midget teams. “As that bulge moves up, we are going to have real problems getting enough ice,” he predicts.
Stewart says the Metro Ottawa Girls’ Hockey League is considering reducing the number of teams in the league or cutting back on the number of games per season.
But Stewart says she is confident the proposed ice allocation policy will equally divide whatever ice is available.
“It’s nowhere near what we could use,” she says. “But now the issue will be ice availability, not girls vs. boys.”